✏️ Making the Book: Hedgehogs Don't Wear Underwear (Part 1)

A deep dive into the process of making my author/illustrator debut picture book. From ideation to publishers fighting for the book to making final art 🦔

My book, Hedgehogs Don’t Wear Underwear, has been out for MORE than a month now.

It’s strange to see it grow up and be out on its own in the real world. I feel like a proud but cautious parent.

Where is it going to go next?

Is it going to look both ways before crossing the street?

I hope it doesn’t eat cake for lunch. It needs its five basic food groups!

When I started this Substack I knew I wanted to share my book-making process for all my books but I was especially excited to share my process for Hedgehogs. I had to focus on both the art and the story simultaneously, and it was such a unique experience. I hope that sharing my journey can help you, art clubber, on your own journey! Actual blood, sweat, and tears went into this book. But also laughing and cake and lots of smiling. Let’s go!

If you want to see my previous blog posts on the behind-the-scenes of making books, you can check out my old-school blog posts sharing the process here.

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For you VIPers, I’m breaking the process into multiple parts so these posts aren’t too long. You’ll read about:

1. Coming up with the idea and writing the book.

2. Making it into a dummy that I then used to get an agent and sell to publishers at auction!

3. Editing the book over four years.

4. Creating final art, creating the cover, and working with a design team on typography and last details.
   

   And maybe more? I’m REALLY diving into detail here people.
   

My stubbornness and coming up with book ideas.

Imagine in your mind’s eye: it’s 2018, Covid is an inconceivable notion and Marissa Valdez is working on her children’s illustration portfolio while trying to write books at the same time.

Plus, she’s in a rad writing critique group with some awesome writers.

So there I am, furiously working on my books, hoping that I could break into the children’s book industry and leave my day job. But like a lot of people just starting out writing for children, I was writing books that I thought the industry would want, not books that I actually wanted to write.

I’m a sucker for hilarious, fast, and fun picture books but I was only writing quiet books that I realistically just wanted to make art for. Art was my thing, so publishers would want to see books that only showcase my illustrations, right? I was putting my illustration brain before my story brain.

Let’s just say when I would show my critique group my stories, the feedback I would get was BRUTAL.

“It’s just not working.”

“It’s boring.”

“Maybe you should try something different.”

My critique group did what they were supposed to: they were critiquing me. But my inner stubbornness couldn’t help but be mad.

Me, boring? ME?? How DARE they? I don’t NEED them (I did).

Luckily, their comments lit a literary fire under my supposedly boring bottom. I’m the type of person who if told they can’t accomplish something, will do everything in their power to prove them wrong.

“You can’t jump off a cliff”. Oh, just wait and see!

Hedgehogs take the stage.

So in total frustration, I decided to write a story based on one of my random digital sketches. It was a little drawing of a couple of pudgy hedgehogs that I had shown to my friend Meghan earlier that month. She, like my writing critique group (which she was also a part of), gave me some advice that poked at my stubbornness:

“Put underwear on those hedgehogs. Underwear is hilarious.”

Me? Draw low-brow content such as undies? I considered myself a good, respectable person who would never put underwear on my characters just for a laugh.

I outright denied her suggestion.

But she, equally as stubborn as me, advocated for the hilarity of underpants with such vigor that I eventually caved. Grabbing my iPad, I took her advice.

You can see the result below: